Click here for full results from the Woody Wilson Invite
After numerous races this season with temperatures in the 40's and rain, the Bay Area is now welcoming a blast of summer in April as the Bronco track team was met with temps in the mid 90's at the Woody Wilson Invite hosted by UC Davis on Saturday - not ideal conditions for a distance runner.
"The conditions were brutal for any event longer than 1500m, but I thought our athletes dealt with the conditions well. Overall Chantelle and I were very pleased with our results. This was a great start to the final stretch of the season," said Bronco head coach Felipe Montoro.
Senior Erin McCarthy once again set the school record at 800m. McCarthy dominated the field wining the event by two seconds, running 2:13.66.
The women's 1500m provided some outstanding results for the Broncos. Allie Sibole continued her strong sophomore season with a second place finish. Sibole finished in 4:38.12. Right on her heels, junior Erin Hartwig had a big breakthrough, dropping six seconds of her previous 1500m best. Hartwig finished in third place in 4:38.60. In heat 2 of the event, freshman Mary Kriege powered away to a win in 4:49.80, a seven-second personal best and good for seventh best overall. Freshman Jenn Nakamura also ran well, finishing second place in heat 2 and 8th overall in 4:51.65. Senior Jenny Light ran her first 1500m of the season, and finished in 5:02.02, 14th overall.
In the men's 1500m, sophomore Moises Venegas finished 18th overall in 4:06.98, just ahead of freshman Sean Roe who ran 4:08.64 in 20th.
Senior Richard Zhu also ran a personal best in the 800m, placing third overall in 1:55.36. Also running well was senior Chris Sampson. Sampson was 17th overall in 1:59.77.
The 5000m event did not produce fast times or personal bests due to the severe heat, but it did turn out some outstanding efforts. "I was very impressed with Bryan Crook and Kevin Oliver. They ran really tough in very adverse conditions. Those types of efforts in favorable conditions will certainly produce quality marks," said Coach Montoro.
Both the men and women return to action next Friday at Cal for the Brutus Hamilton Invitational, and Erin McCarthy will be running on Sunday at the Payton Jordan Invitational hosted by Stanford.
